In times of quarantaine Youtube is one of my go to sites. I watch a lot of football related content, even though there isn’t much football going on at the moment. One of the videos I’ve been watching gave me the idea for this article. It’s this SkySports video where Steven Gerrard talks about his World XI with a twist.
World Eleven with a twist
The rules for this team are as followed:
- Pick 11 players
- You can only choose players from your lifetime
- You can only pick 2 players from each team and country
It turned out to be a lot harder than I thought initially. I had to skip some top quality players because there were too many connections with other players. One of the first players on my list was the original Ronaldo (R9). Unfortunately I had to skip him, because he played for too many teams. This is the World Eleven with a twist of my lifetime (born in the Netherlands in 1985, watching football since 1992).
Goalkeeper: Jan Oblak
Oblak is currently one of the best goalkeepers in the world. Is he better than any other goalkeeper I’ve watched in my lifetime? No he’s not. But every other goalkeeper that was in contention for this team had too many connections with other players in this team. Oblak played for a lot of teams (more than I thought), but Benfica and Atletico Madrid are the only real top teams he played for.
Fullbacks: Cafu and Andrew Robertson
The backs were two of the toughest positions to choose. My first thought was to pick Cafu and Roberto Carlos. Both played for quite a lot of clubs, so I decided to pick Cafu and Andrew Robertson. Cafu is in my eyes the best right fullback I’ve ever watched. Andrew Robertson is currently the best left fullback in the world. So I feel quite good about my fullback selection. Roberto Carlos played for too many teams, so I couldn’t pick him. One of my personal favourites on the left side is Maxwell, but he can’t make it in this team because of the teams he played for.
Centre backs: Virgil van Dijk and Rio Ferdinand
In terms of centre backs it’s not going to get much better than this. Virgil van Dijk is currently the best centre back in the world. Rio Ferdinand has been the best centre back in the world for quite some time. That’s why I came to this centre back pairing. I’ve been trying to get Paolo Maldini in this team too, since he only played for one team his entire career. But unfortunately for the Italian, I had two other Ac Milan players who needed to get into this team.
Midfielders: Kevin de Bruyne, Andrea Pirlo and Xavi
The midfield is the area where I had the least doubts. All three players are outstanding and deserve their place in my World Eleven with a twist. Kevin de Bruyne is currently the player I love to watch the most. He is by far the best midfielder in the world at this moment. Pirlo and Xavi belonged to the best midfielders in the world for many years. Both are two absolute geniuses.
Forwards; Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Kylian Mbappé
Just take a quick look at this group of players. Does it get any better than this? I personally don’t think so. CR7 and Messi dominated the world of football for many years and Kylian Mbappé is going to do the same in this decade. I don’t even need to explain why these three players are the forwards in my team.